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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A Herstory of the Revolutionary Cells and Rote Zora

http://www.spunk.org/texts/groups/anm/sp000268.txt

Armed Resistance in West
Germany

The Revolutionary Cells (RZ) first appeared on November 16, 1973 with an attack
against ITT in West Berlin to point out the
participation of this multinational corporation in Pinochet's military putsch in Chile.
In 1974, the first high-explosive attack was undertaken by the wimmin of the RZ against the Bundesverfassungsgericht
(Federal Constitutional Court)
in Karlsruhe, the day after it supported
the abortion law, Par. 218; a paragraph against free choice on abortion,
allowing abortion only in certain cases. The wimmin naturally demanded the
total right for every womyn to have an abortion,
as a right to self- determination over their own bodies. In the first issue of
Revolutionarer Zorn (Revolutionary Rage) the RZ subdivided their actions into
three main categories: 1)anti-imperialist actions, 2)actions against the branches,
establishments, and accomplices of Zionism in the FRG, and 3)actions supporting
the struggles of workers, wimmin and youth, and attacking and punishing their
enemies. This thematic spectrum was used in the following years.

One Revolutionary Cell became several Revolutionary Cells. Later
on, in the late 70's, the militant actions by the RZ became also a part of the
anti-nuclear movement (at that time people marched in thousands against nuclear
power and reprocessing plants in Kalkar, Wyhl, Gorleban, and Brokdorf) and the
Anti-Runway 18 West Movement (Anti- Startbahn 18 West-Bewegung) in the Rhein-Main
area. In this context, only one attack with deadly consequence was carried out:
the Minister of Economy and Transportation, Herbert Karry, was assassinated on May 11, 1981 by the RZ.

From 1977 onwards, the militant feminist anti-patriarchal wimmin's
urban guerilla group Rote Zora (Red Zora) acted autonomously and independently,
though some wimmin still participated in the Revolutionary Cells."Wimmin
were always a part of the armed groups. Their portion was mostly held back. But
the times are changing...subversive wimmin's groups like Red Zora do exist,
indeed still too few, but even that will be changing."--Red Zora.

Red Zora attacks predominantly patriarchal institutes, companies,
and persons representing and building up a male sexist society, which is
oppressing and exploiting wimmin worldwide. They are conducting campaigns
against porntraders, sex shops,
international traders of wimmin (those who profit from importing Asian wimmin
as "brides" for West German men), doctors who are carrying out forced sterilizations, the Doctor's Guild ("We
see the Federal Doctor's Guild as exponents of rape in white trenchcoats"),
drug companies (notably Schering who produced the birth defect causing drug
Duogynon), as well as computer companies such as Nixdorf and the multinational
Siemens. Very popular as well was the illegal reprinting of bus and streetcar
fares. In individual cases, Red Zora and the Revolutionary Cells have worked
together such as in the writing of a critique of the peace movement in 1984. In this paper they criticised
the peace movement as a bourgeois movement
with an apocalyptic vision. The RZ and Red Zora said that the major mistake of
the peace movement was to concentrate their political goal only on the pres- ervation
of peace in the metropoles instead of discussing the imperialist context
between armament and crisis; Third
World misery and social cutbacks; sexism and racism.

Anti-Imperialism Today

In the last three years the RZ have concentrated their actions
on the issue of West German foreigner and refugee policies."We want to
contribute to the recovery of a concrete
anti-imperialism in the FRG...Anti-imperialism doesn't mean only attacks on the
military industrial complex and it is more than just solidarity with liberation
movements worldwide."(Quote from Revolutionary Rage, October 1986).

Attacks such as the one on the Center for the Central Register of Foreigners in Cologne
on the one hand, or the kneecapping of Hollenburg (Chief of Immigration Police in
West Berlin) show the wide field of these militant politics. While those who are attacked are
responsible for the racisr refugee policies in the FRG and West
Berlin, the intention of the attacks on institutions, whose doc- uments,
files, and data are being destroyed, is to procure a space which isn't
controlled or regulated by the state. "But our actions will fizzle out
ineffectually, if they don't contribute to a development of a new beginning of
anti-imperialism within the radical left"(Quote by the RZ).

Since the early 70's, the RZ and Red Zora have launched over
200 attacks. Red Zora's most comprehensive and successful attack campaign so far has been the deposit of
incendiary bombs in ten branches of the
Adler Corporation, one of West Germany's
largest clothing manufacturers selling discount clothing in the FRG, produced
by low paid wimmin in South Korean and Sri Lankan factories. "The wimmin
at Adler in South Korea
struggle against the exploitation of their capacity for work and are putting up
a fight against the daily sexism. They call for support from the FRG for their
struggle. As a result, the shitty living and working conditions of wimmin in
the vacuous production centers of the three continents and especially those of
Adler in South Korea
and Sri Lanka
are becoming more widely known here
through leaflets, events, and actions in front of Adler's retail centers. In
these actions, anti-imperialism can be practical."(Quote from Red Zora, in
their Adler statement.)

In a later released statement from Red Zora, the consideration was again concretized that the
attacks were the correct strategy:"Consciousness had already been raised
through the leaflet actions organized by human rights groups (Terre des Femmes)
and independent church groups. So preparatory work had been done. The wimmin in
South Korea
have taken control of and defended their own situation."They went on
strike to protest low minimum wages, lay offs, deplorable work conditions, and rampant
sexism from West German foremen."So it was possible that the struggle
there (by the wimmin in South Korea)
and the struggle here (by Red Zora) are compatible. We aren't fighting for the
wimmin in the Third World,"they said,"we're
fighting alongside them." This defines Red Zora's struggle against
imperialism.

In 1987, when Red Zora and their sister group in West
Berlin, the Amazonen, fire bombed ten Adler outlets throughout West
Germany, they caused millions of dollars in
damages. Because of this, Adler was forced to meet the demands of the textile
workers. Red Zora and the Amazonen
clearly proved that militant resistance can be very effective.

Both the Revolutionary Cells and Red Zora have anti- authoritarian
structures and a decentralized decision- making process for choosing targets. As
well, they point out that militant direct actions are just one part of the
revolutionary movement. Although they participate in extensive and far-reaching
legal work campaigns and social movements through their militant actions, these
actions aren't of any more importance to handing out flyers or leaflets, going
to demonstrations, having sit-ins, publishing newspapers, educating people, squatting houses, or organizing strikes at
work. "We don't have a hierarchical system for choosing actions. Thinking
in hierarchical divisions puts actions in a perspective of priveledge and is
prone to a patriarchal way of thinking."(Quote by members of the RZ in an interview that appeared in Autonomie, 1980.)

Besides the RZ and Red Zora, there exists several other militant autonomous groups who are all
integral components of the revolutionary movement in West
Germany and West Berlin.
Most of these groups originate from the mass social movements of the 80's. They
all work independently of each other and issue political statements of their
actions, much like the RZ and Red Zora, but unlike them, many of these groups
haven't been around very long.

In 1986, at the peak of resistance aginst the nuclear power plant
in Brokdorf and the nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf, thousands of
people participated in demon- strations as a part of the anti-nuclear movement.
During this time, several hundred attacks were made by militant autonomous cells against certain companies and
corporations to protest their
involvement in the nuclear industry. The most popular activity at this time was
sawing down electric power lines that were directly connected to the nuclear
power plants. Around 2-300 attacks were made. Some of the militant autonomous
groups from this period have survived into the present. Others have disbanded
and have gone on th influence and form other
groups. Following is a list of a few of these groups. It would be impossible to
name all of them.

-Revolutionare Handwerker: involved in direct actions
against nuclear plants by sawing down
electric power lines. No longer active.

-Amazonen: Sister group of Red Zora, but independent of them.

Two people are
currently in jail for being members of the

Amazonen.

-Zornige Viren: on January
2, 1989, attacked the Gen-Institut (Gene Institute) at the University
of Darmstadt causing DM2,000,000 in damages.

-Autonome Zellen Alois Sonnenleitner (AS): autonomous anti- nuclear cell. Destroyed excavators, trucks,
and building site of Hofmeister AG (an
NPP company) by setting fire to them. Alois
Sonnenleitner was an elderly man who was killed in Wackersdorf by the cops in 1986. Still
active.

attacking military
industrial complexes. One cell, Kampf- ende Einheit Crespo Cepa Galende, named
itself after an ETA (Basque guerilla
organization) fighter who was killed by the Spanish authorities. Made an attack
on a border police security building.

The militant direct action groups in West
Germany and West Berlin
have received widespread support from the larger movements there, including
from some of the more liberal organizations. This is partially because the
underground cells are dependent on the larger movements and, as well, are
active in them. Their actions address issues that many people are already
educated on and sympathetic to. For example,
Red Zora has gained wide popular support because their actions appeal to the
massive feminist movement already existing in West
Germany, where the leftist and radical media
has been doing much work for some time now to educate the public on issues
involving sexism, wimmin's oppression and exploitation, and wimmin's rights to
the control of their own bodies. While the RZ doesn't claim as much support as
Red Zora, in 1987, supporters of the Revolutionary
Cells published the book Der Weg zum Erfolg (The Way to Success), explaining
their strategies, politics, and actions. Less than a week after the book hit
the shelves of radical bookstores, the entire printing (around 3000) was sold
out.

The high degree of effectiveness of many RZ and Red Zora
actions wouldn't be possible without popular support. By themselves, their
actions would only serve to alienate them from the struggle. Moreover, with the
support of the mass movements, members of the RZ and Red Zora are able to work
among the numbers of people active in the struggle without exposing their underground
identities. In their herstory, only one womyn has been arrested for membership in
Red Zora, but due to lack of evidence against her, the charges were dropped. The
RZ, however, has had a few convictions over the past 16 years. Ingrid Strobl, most recently
was sentenced to five years in prison on the
9th of June 1989 for being a member of the RZ. Her sentence is the
longest issued to any of the convicted RZ members. While prisoner support is an
important task that consumes a great amount of time, most of the work is done
by the larger movement, and the RZ and Red Zora can continue organ- izing
actions against oppressive, imperialist companies and corporations.

Other revolutionaries
sentenced to prison:

-Erik Prauss and Andrea Sievering: accused of membership in
the "terrorist" organisation, Red Army
Faction (RAF),and a bombing of Dornier,
a war corporation, which caused 1.3 million DM in damages.

Each was sentenced to
9 years in prison on January 18, 1989.

-Norbert Hofmeier, Barbara Perau, Thomas Thoene, and Thomas
Richter: accused of membership in the
RAF and a bombing. Sentenced all together to 32
years on January 20, 1989. Sentencing
judge (Arend) also sentenced Ingrid Strobl.

Hofmeier-10 years,
Perau-9, Thoene-9, Richter-4.

In both of the trials involving the mentioned people, the
BAW (Federal State Prosecutors) and the judges were alledging that the accused
people were members of the RAF, but this was the false claim of the court to
get these people stiffer sentences. Both attacks (the one at Dornier, and the
other at the border police security building) were claimed by the Kampfende
Einheiten. This group works independently from the RAF. But since the RAF is defined
as a "terrorist" organization by the state, conviction as a member
can carry a longer sentence. Kampfende Einheiten isn't defined as such and would not be
subjected to as heavy a sentence. So the BAW and the judges set up the
construct of the Whole-RAF (Gesamt-RAF) and claimed that Kampfende Einheiten is
a part of the RAF.

At the trial of Erik and Andrea, Eva-Haule Frimpong, an imprisoned
member of the RAF, stated on the witness stand that "in 4 years, no one
but myself has been caught from the RAF. The twelve comrades of the resistance
who were supposedly arrested since then (the six from Kiefernstrasse nor the people
from Stuttgart) were not organized
in the RAF." (Quote by Eva on November 29, 1989).

-Fritz Storim: sentenced to one year in prison. A teacher,
accused of supporting the RAF. Supposedly a member of the autonomous
newsjournal SABOT.

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